About a year ago I noticed a shift in American popular music. David Guetta released that song with Akon, “Sexy Chick.” Though in my opinion, not a very good song, it became a hit with radio play for months. And an Electro House hit at that, but catered to the Hip Hop/R&B crowd. Three 6 Mafia followed with another Electro song, but with Tiesto on the track. Not quite as successful as “Sexy Chick,” it had a similar sound that Americans could start getting used to. 2010 was the year that welcomed Electro House into American pop music.
Lady Gaga may have been the first sign of this shift. “Just Dance” and “Poker Face” had a distinct dance music sound, but not quite Electro House. We’ve heard this sort of thing before when Madonna was making tracks like that about ten years ago. But Electro is a distinct sub-genre that’s remained quite popular in the club scene for some time. Electro grew to great popularity in the mid-2000’s internationally, with its ground zero in Europe. I thought it might have a novel appearance in American popular music at best, and “I’m In Miami Bitch” by LMFAO would have been one of these novelties, but over the past year its grown to be one of the quintessential sounds of popular music this turn of the decade, though more watered down and pop-formulaic than its European mother.
Lady Gaga and Katy Perry started this “outrageous female singer” trend that’s going strong into 2011. Ke$ha reared her face in the scene about a year ago as well with “Tik Tok,” which utilized the Electro sound as well as a healthy dose of Auto-Tune. Her hits in that followed, “Blah Blah Blah,” “Your Love Is My Drug,” and “Take It Off,” all from her album, Animal, followed in suit. And her current hit, “We R Who We R” continues this pattern. Britney Spears even had an Electro sounding song in late 2009 with “3,” and is now rocking the sound better than most with her new hit, “Hold It Against Me.”
In the Hip Hop/R&B front, the Electro sound is continuing to become very prominent. The Black Eyed Peas have been leaning towards a more club/dance sound since their 2005 Monkey Business album. “I Gotta Feeling” and “Boom Boom Pow” took it further. Both tracks were off The E.N.D. album, which shows that they were ahead of the game using the Electro sound, when “Imma Be” (which started out with a slower Hip Hop sound that evolved into Electro towards the end) became a hit a year ago as well. Then “Rock That Body” made the charts during the summer of 2010, which was basically straight up Electro House with no watering down whatsoever. They continued this trend in their next album, The Beginning, with the late-2010 hit “The Time (Dirty Bit).” The track was a pop-throwback and dirtier sounding Electro amalgam, which European Electro artist Deadmau5 claimed plagiarism of his own work. Regardless of the validity of the accusation, it further popularized his music along with the Black Eyed Peas track.
Electro music actually branched out from Hip Hop, when it was created in the late 1970’s. Afrika Bambaataa’s 1980’s classic, “Planet Rock” is probably the most recognizable of the genre. Even Dr. Dre was making that kind of music with the World Class Wrecking Crew throughout the 80’s. Just check out pictures of him from that era and his Gangsta aesthetic just melts away. A lot of Puerto Rican artists hopped on the genre in the 80’s and made it their own, known as Freestyle. It persisted even into the late-90’s with Rockell’s Freestyle hit, “In A Dream.”
It brings a smile to my face that the sound is re-emerging in Hip Hop/R&B. For the past several years, all the tracks seem to be so slow and hi-hat heavy, that I wonder how people have that much fun dancing to it, unless they’re all sipping syrup. That kind of Hip Hop is great for the car and the strip club, but what about the dance floor? The Hip Hop these days is definitely making it a lot more fun out there.
The Far-East Movement came out with a pretty rocking Electro Rap track in 2009 with “Girls On The Dance Floor,” but it didn’t see much play outside of the clubs. “Like A G6” really put their name out there in the Fall of 2010 when they reached the top of the charts, along with collaborators Dev and The Cataracs. Since, Dev and The Cataracs put out their own single, “Bass Down Low,” which had a similar sound. The Cataracs have just released a song with Snoop Dogg called “Wet,” and though not an Electro track, we’ll probably see a lot more from them this year.
Flo Rida has always had a very club/dance friendly sound, with beats ranging from 120 to 130 bpm. And now he too has worked with famed European Electro artist, David Guetta, on the track “Club Can’t Handle Me.” His new Electro influenced track with Akon, “Who Dat Girl,” which has only peaked at 29 on Billboard’s Hot 100 will probably become a bigger hit in the next month or so. Perhaps the music industry overlords are waiting for the most strategic time to put it on the top.
Usher changed up his style a lot in 2010 and is banking off of this new Electro trend. “OMG” reached massive popularity during the summer. It seemed highly unenthusiastic to me, but the Electro effect was in full effect and watered down as to be expected. “So Many Girls,” which wasn’t quite as successful as “OMG” had a more authentic sound to it. And later in 2010, Usher’s track with Pitbull, “DJ Got US Falling In Love Again,” maintained that Electro cut with baking soda sound.
Pitbull, of course, plays a big role in this emerging new sub-genre of Hip Hop/R&B, albeit being a Reggaeton artist. He, like Flo Rida, has always had a club/dance sound, and he put the Electro in full effect with 2009’s “Shut It Down” featuring Akon. His latest cheese ball hit with T-Pain, “Hey Baby (Drop It To The Floor)” continues the style. Taio Cruz, though not an American (or Puerto Rican), has attained a lot of popularity throughout the past year in the States, and he too is thick in the sound with tracks like “Break Your Heart” which featured Ludacris, “Dynamite,” and “Dirty Picture” which featured Auto-Tune Electro-Pop princess, Ke$ha.
Another non-American singer who has gained much popularity in the States recently is Enrique Iglesias, who I haven’t really heard anything from since that “Bailamos” song back in the late-90’s. “I Like It” featuring Pitbull was pretty Electro and heavily Auto-Tuned, and his latest hit, “Tonight (I’m Lovin’ You)” which features Ludacris, retains the flavor.
Chris Brown really surprised me this winter with his latest hit, “Yeah 3X.” It’s pretty much an uplifting Electro House track catered to American listeners in lyrical content. I think this is the track, along with Enrique’s two latest hits, that will really incorporate Electro House into American popular music. Get ready for more tracks like this to follow the pattern.
The reason this all excites me is that I’ve been waiting for Electronic Dance to become a standard form of American popular music, like Hip Hop did over ten years ago. You would think it would have earlier with many popular artists experimenting in the sound in the late-80’s and into the 90’s, but it has never really stuck. Now, with so much saturation of the sound on the radio and in music television these days, it is sure to inspire a whole new generation of artists. Music software has enabled anyone with a laptop to create a home studio, and e-piracy will even ensure the poorest kid with a laptop to start experimenting. This trend has enabled Hip Hop acts like Soulja Boy Tell’em to become popular in recent years, so why not a whole onslaught of singers with Electronic Dance music backing next? I have a feeling this new decade is going to be very club-friendly.
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